UAC-0050 Targets European Financial Institution With Spoofed Domain and RMS Malware

A Russia-aligned threat actor has been observed targeting a European financial institution as part of a social engineering attack to likely facilitate intelligence gathering or financial theft, signaling a possible expansion of the threat actor's targeting beyond Ukraine and into entities...

Leaks show Intellexa burning zero-days to keep Predator spyware running

Intellexa is a well-known commercial spyware vendor, servicing governments and large corporations. Its main product is the Predator spyware. An investigation by several independent parties describes Intellexa as one of the most notorious mercenary spyware vendors, still operating its Predator...

U.S. Charges Two Sudanese Brothers for Record 35,000 DDoS Attacks

Federal prosecutors in the U.S. have charged two Sudanese brothers with running a distributed denial-of-service DDoS botnet for hire that conducted a record 35,000 DDoS attacks in a single year, including those that targeted Microsoft's services in June 2023. The attacks, which were facilitated b...

iPhone users in 98 countries warned about spyware by Apple

In April 2024, we reported how Apple was warning people of mercenary attacks via its threat notification system. At the time it warned users in 92 countries. In a new round, Apple is now warning users in 98 countries of potential mercenary spyware attacks. The message sent to the affected users...

Apple Is Alerting iPhone Users of Spyware Attacks

Not a lot of details: Apple has issued a new round of threat notifications to iPhone users across 98 countries, warning them of potential mercenary spyware attacks. Its the second such alert campaign from the company this year, following a similar notification sent to users in 92 nations in April...

iPhone Users in 92 Countries Targeted by Mercenary Spyware Attacks

By Deeba Ahmed Apple has issued iPhone security alerts to 92 countries, stating that their devices have been targeted by a mercenary spyware attack, expressing high confidence in the warning. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: iPhone Users in 92 Countries Targeted by Mercena...

Apple warns people of mercenary attacks via threat notification system

Apple has reportedly sent alerts to individuals in 92 nations on Wednesday, April 10, to say its detected that they may have been a victim of a mercenary attack. The company says it has sent out these types of threat notifications to over 150 countries since the start in 2021. Mercenary spyware i...

Apple Updates Spyware Alert System to Warn Victims of Mercenary Attacks

Apple on Wednesday revised its documentation pertaining to its mercenary spyware threat notification system to mention that it alerts users when they may have been individually targeted by such attacks. It also specifically called out companies like NSO Group for developing commercial surveillanc...

Zero-Day Alert: Apple Rolls Out iOS, macOS, and Safari Patches for 2 Actively Exploited Flaws

Apple has released software updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Safari web browser to address two security flaws that it said have come under active exploitation in the wild on older versions of its software. The vulnerabilities, both of which reside in the WebKit web browser engine, are describe...

Apple Rushes to Patch Zero-Day Flaws Exploited for Pegasus Spyware on iPhones

Apple on Thursday released emergency security updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS to address two zero-day flaws that have been exploited in the wild to deliver NSO Group's Pegasus mercenary spyware. The issues are described as below - CVE-2023-41061 - A validation issue in Wallet that...

Previewing Talos at BlackHat 2023

Welcome to this weeks edition of the Threat Source newsletter. The time has come once again for all of us well, not me specifically but lots of other Talos people to descend on Las Vegas for Hacker Summer Camp. Cisco Talos will be well-represented at BlackHat and DEF CON over the course of the ne...

Half-Year in Review: Recapping the top threats and security trends so far in 2023

From new ransomware groups, a growing mercenary space, espionage campaigns, supply chain attacks, and new "as a service" tools popping up, theres a lot to talk about already in the first half of 2023. Here are the main threats weve covered on our blog up until the end of June 2023. The timeline i...

Predator Android Spyware: Researchers Uncover New Data Theft Capabilities

Security researchers have detailed the inner workings of the commercial Android spyware called Predator, which is marketed by the Israeli company Intellexa previously Cytrox. Predator was first documented by Google's Threat Analysis Group TAG in May 2022 as part of attacks leveraging five differe...

QuaDream: Israeli Cyber Mercenary Behind iPhone Hacks

By Habiba Rashid Citizens Lab and Microsoft have exposed an Israeli firm, QuaDream, selling spyware to governments around the world. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: QuaDream: Israeli Cyber Mercenary Behind iPhone Hacks...

Fighting mercenaries with the Cybersecurity Tech Accord

Trend Micro co-Authors Cyber Mercenary Principles to help guide the technology industry and others in dealing with the growing market of cyber mercenaries...

Hackers Aid Protests Against Iranian Government with Proxies, Leaks and Hacks

Several hacktivist groups are using Telegram and other tools to aid anti-government protests in Iran to bypass regime censorship restrictions amid ongoing unrest in the country following the death of Mahsa Amini in custody. "Key activities are data leaking and selling, including officials' phone...

Void Balaur Hackers-for-Hire Targeting Russian Businesses and Politics Entities

A hack-for-hire group that was first exposed in 2019 has expanded its focus to set its sights on entities with business or political ties to Russia. Dubbed Void Balaur, the cyber mercenary collective has a history of launching cyberattacks against biotechnology and telecom companies since 2015. A...

Microsoft Uncovers Austrian Company Exploiting Windows and Adobe Zero-Day Exploits

A cyber mercenary that "ostensibly sells general security and information analysis services to commercial customers" used several Windows and Adobe zero-day exploits in limited and highly-targeted attacks against European and Central American entities. The company, which Microsoft describes as a...

Apple’s Lockdown Mode

I havent written about Apples Lockdown Mode yet, mostly because I havent delved into the details. This is how Apple describes it: Lockdown Mode offers an extreme, optional level of security for the very few users who, because of who they are or what they do, may be personally targeted by some of...

Apple Lockdown Mode helps protect users from spyware

Apple has announced a new feature of iOS 16 called Lockdown Mode. This new feature is designed to provide a safer environment on iOS for people at high risk of what Apple refers to as "mercenary spyware." This includes people like journalists and human rights advocates, who are often targeted by...